Customize the Security Settings on Your Smartphone or Tablet

By Jason Rich
Mar 30, 2019

📄 Contents

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Preventing Unauthorized People from Using Your Mobile Device
Taking Advantage of Parental Controls
Adjusting the App-Specific Privacy Settings on Your Mobile Device
Keeping Your Mobile Device's Operating System and Apps Up to Date
Managing Your Mobile Device's Wireless Connections
Blocking and Managing Unwanted Calls to Your Smartphone

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Adjusting the App-Specific Privacy Settings on Your Mobile Device

When you launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad, one of the submenu options is called Privacy. Tap it to determine which apps can use specific mobile device features or share data with other apps.

For example, the Contacts app can share data related to names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and birthdays for people in your Contacts database with other apps like Maps, Mail, Messages, and Calendar.

iOS 12 Privacy submenu (in Settings) is shown here on an iPhone.

When you tap the Location Services option, you’re able to turn on or off the GPS capabilities built in to your smartphone or tablet.

In general, you’ll want to leave the master switch for the Location Services feature turned on, but from the Location Services submenu in Settings, determine which apps are able to access your location and when. You might want to turn on the Location Service feature for the Camera app, so that the location where each photo you take is captured and saved, and also turn on this feature for the Maps app, so your iPhone or iPad can provide detailed navigation information.

However, you might want to turn off Location Services for the Messages app or various other apps, including social media apps, so they can’t track your location, and potentially share it with other apps, online services, or people.

In addition to Location Services, the Privacy submenu in Settings allows you to determine how information in the Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Photos, Camera, Home, and Music apps are able to share information with other apps. (Within Settings, the Home app that comes preinstalled with iOS 12 is referred to as HomeKit.)

More importantly, from this menu, you can control iPhone or iPad functions, such as Bluetooth Sharing, the built-in microphone, the speech recognition technology, and the built-in fitness and motion capabilities.

Be sure to access the Privacy submenu, and then tap each option to personalize each setting to a level you’re personally comfortable with.

>>>GO FURTHER: ANDROID OFFERS SIMILAR PRIVACY SETTINGS

From your Android-based smartphone or tablet, launch Settings, tap the device, and then tap the Private Mode option to personalize settings for the built-in features and functions of individual apps. The Private Mode allows you to keep certain content stored in your mobile device hidden (including photos, videos, music, voice recordings, files stored in My Files, and S Note documents).

From Settings on your Android-based mobile device, you can manage how specific applications interact with each other, as well as with the hardware you’re using. Just tap Settings, tap the Applications tab, and then tap an application listing (such as Calendar, Contacts, Email, Gallery, or Internet) to adjust app-specific settings.

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